


Seasons and Elements

by Milieu



Category: Changeling: The Lost, Rune Factory (Video Games), Rune Factory 4, World of Darkness (Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Changelings, Crossover, Gen, Morally Ambiguous Ventuswill, Other, Surreal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-14 01:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4544298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milieu/pseuds/Milieu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four went into the Hedge and one brought them out again, and one more knew better than the rest the price they paid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seasons and Elements

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative title: Everyone is an Elemental and Everything Hurts

_5\. Woodblood_

Frey had the earth in her bones, the balance that only one who understood the seasons in all their variations could maintain. She worked tirelessly, nurturing life into the fields with her own sweat, blood, and tears, and sharing the bounty of her harvest with the rest of Selphia.

_You're the only one who can do it,_ Ventuswill had told her.  _You're the one I've been waiting for._

At first, Frey had thought that Venti only meant the tending of the fields.

Until she found the first path leading back into the Hedge, and the prisoner at its end. And the next. And the next, after which Venti finally told her the whole truth.

She can't remember what came before Selphia, can't really know what lies on the other side of the Hedge (and Venti said she should be thankful for that), but she knew that she couldn't leave someone else trapped there if she had a way out.

 

_4\. Airtouched_

Amber lived with all the promise of a new beginning and all the joy of Spring in her heart. She walked into the Hedge with hope and a resolute cheer that she wore more out of necessity than truth, and was carried out again still hopeful and cheerful, but with scraps of Arcadia's darkness clinging to her soul.

_I did it because I wanted to, Ven,_ she said.  _I wanted you to keep living. You didn't make me do it._ _  
_

Ventuswill wished she could put into words for Amber why she couldn't believe that.

 

_3\. Levinquick_

Dylas was noise, strength, stamina, Summer's heat and power clutched in his fists. Though he went in willingly, refusing to take the obvious escape, he fought his way back out with Frey's help and came back with thunderclouds in his eyes and summer storms in his voice.

_It wasn't that bad,_ he said.  _Just like going on a long trip._

That was what he kept telling himself, in the snatches of fury and pain that he remembers. That it was almost like a journey, and the reason for setting out was what made it all worth it.

 

_2\. Manikin_

Dolce carried herself with grace and poise, sweetness and barbs and Winter's secrecy all wrapped up in a presentation that was just slightly off-putting. She left without saying goodbye and hardly even said hello again when she returned, though her sweetness remained, if one could chip away the layers that Arcadia had made cold and hard above it.

_I hate saying goodbye,_ she said.  _So I didn't, and now I'm here again so what does it matter?_

They all knew that she knew just how much it did matter. But no one said so.

 

_1\. Di-cang_

Leon asked impossible questions, traveled the world with all the curiosity and changes of Autumn, sticking his nose in everywhere it didn't belong. He was groundbreaking in his decision to leave as he was in all other things, the first to walk into the Hedge without telling Ventuswill what he'd done and the last to return to a world that had forgotten him.

_You were hurting,_ he said.  _You have to know how that hurts the rest of us as well. I knew exactly what I was asking when I sought a way in._

He couldn't have known, could hardly have even imagined the price he was setting himself up to pay. He thought that Ventuswill couldn't see his regrets.

 

_0\. Charlatan_

They say that a member of the True Fae is as sterile spiritually as they are biologically. They also say that if one was to ever truly begin to feel, to have even a shred of understanding or empathy towards humanity, they would no longer be able to stay in Arcadia. They would become Exiles, the ones who lost the majority of their powers and were cast out into the mortal realm for a thousand Fae lifetimes.

_It's only a fairy tale,_ Ventuswill would have said, if anyone ever asked. (No one did.)

She wouldn't tell them of the ways dwelling so near one of the True Fae would warp the humans around them, if such Exiles really did exist. She wouldn't mention the price one would pay in Clarity and physical wellness both if they were forced to dwell outside the realm in which they had been created. She wouldn't say that free will can be an illusion, that self-preservation and fear can overcome even the most chivalrous of beings and she had never been chivalrous to begin with.

_I am Ventuswill, the Divine Wind._

She wouldn't tell them that they had never truly understood the importance of names.


End file.
